Woman sentenced in unusual DUI case

Thursday

Jul 11, 2013 at 10:03 AMJul 11, 2013 at 10:10 AM

By Ami RidlingDaily News Staff Writer

YREKA – An intoxicated Interstate 5 motorist who passed out while driving, causing her 5- and 7-year old children to have to take the wheel and operate the foot pedals to avoid a wreck, was sentenced Tuesday in the Siskiyou County Superior Court.

Nicole Paige Levin, 31, of Grants Pass, Ore., was sentenced to four years in state prison, though the sentence was suspended. She was granted four years of probation.Visiting judge Dennis Buckley also ordered Levin to serve 365 days in county jail; however, she will be eligible for release after 60 days if she enrolls in a residential substance abuse treatment program. In addition, she will be required to pay a $2,530 fine and standard restitution fees.

The incident occurred on June 19, 2011, which was two days after she completed her probation period for a DUI conviction in 2008.

According to Siskiyou County deputy district attorney Monique Neese, who was the prosecutor in this case, the intoxicated Levin was traveling in her vehicle northbound on I-5 en route to Oregon with her 7-year-old child in the front seat and her 5- and 1-year-old children in the back seat.

While Levin was traveling south of Mount Shasta during the daytime hours, she passed out. Her 7-year-old child frantically took the wheel and her 5-year-old had to climb over the seat to work the gas and brake pedals to avoid a crash.

The vehicle struck a guard rail, and California Highway Patrol officers were dispatched to the location to perform a traffic stop, as several motorists called 9-1-1 to report a vehicle weaving dangerously on the roadway.

According to Neese, the sirens from the patrol vehicles woke Levin. She pulled to the side of the road. Upon undergoing sobriety testing, it was determined that she had a blood-alcohol concentration of .27 percent - more than three times the legal limit.

Levin was booked in the county jail and her children, who did not sustain injuries, were taken into protective custody. The children’s father traveled from Oregon to retrieve his kids.

Levin was charged with willful harm or injury to a child, driving while under the influence, driving while under the influence with a blood-alcohol concentration of .08 percent or higher, as well as special allegations for her prior DUI and for having three passengers in the vehicle who were under the age of 14.

Prior to her scheduled preliminary hearing in March, Levin pleaded guilty to all the charges and admitted that the special allegations were true.

Levin was released from the jail shortly after her arrest. She did not appear at her scheduled May sentencing hearing, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. She was booked again in the county jail June 11 on $50,000 bail for a count of failure to appear in court on felony charges.

“Ms. Levin has suffered in this case because she values her relationship with her children,” said Levin’s public defender, Andy Marx, at the Tuesday sentencing hearing. Neese told the court, “This is not your standard DUI. There were three young children that could have been killed in that car. These are very egregious circumstances.” Neese asked the court to issue a criminal protective order for the children.

“Since that day, my children are scared to ride in a car and they have nightmares,” said the children’s tearful father at the hearing. “I can tell you this has been a very tough road for me as a parent.”

He pleaded with the court to issue a protective order for one year, and he asserted that Levin is in need of a lengthy commitment to a residential substance abuse treatment program.

“There is no doubt this was a horrible near-tragedy,” said Buckley. However, he pointed out, “[Levin] is going to be the mother of these children for as long as she lives.” He added that the propensity for substance abuse is a condition that requires treatment. Buckley issued the criminal protective order pending a family court order for supervised visits with the children, and he permitted her to write letters to the children.

“Although California has come a long way in reducing the number of injuries and deaths attributable to alcohol-impaired driving, we are constantly reminded that there is still far to go,” commented Siskiyou County district attorney Kirk Andrus. “When an intoxicated person drives a vehicle, it makes everybody else vulnerable – especially passengers, and especially passengers who are children. Protecting children is among our most important priorities. I hope that this case and the resulting sentence is sufficient to make any other person hesitate, rather than subject a child to such horribly dangerous circumstances.”

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